1858 - Rowland
Hussey Macy was a Nantucket Quaker and whaler who failed several times as a
store owner until he founded a "fancy dry goods" store in New York City on
6th Avenue near 14th Street in 1858. He began selling at a fixed price for
cash, discounted and advertised his merchandise. The red star tatooed on his
hand as a 15-year old boy on the whaling ship Emily Morgan became the
symbol of the new store. In 1866 he bought an adjoining building for
expansion, and by 1872 owned four buildings and by his death in 1877 owned
11 buildings. He was one of the first owners to employ women executives, and
Margaret Getschell rose from cashier in 1866 to store superintendent and
husband of one of the owners. In 1887 Isidore and Nathan Straus became part
owners, and bought full control in 1898. The Strauses moved the store from
14th Street to Herald Square, and in 1902 built a new store on this site
where Koster & Bial's Music Hall once stood and where Thomas Edison first
projected his Vitascope motion picture. The new Macy's store was proclaimed
"the largest store on earth" with 9 stories and 33 elevators and 4
escalators and pneumatic tube system. This structure grew 30 stories
covering an entire city block by 1924. With a "6% less for cash" policy it
attracted thousands of customers. By 1977 Macy's was the nation's 5th
largest department store chain with 76 stores, sale over $1.6 billion, and
full ownership of 5 regional shopping centers and 50% interest in 3 other
centers.

No one would have guessed that the small,
fancy dry goods store that opened on the corner of 14th Street and 6th
Avenue in New York City in 1858 would grow to be one of the largest
department store retailers in the country.

But after several failed retail ventures,
Rowland Hussey Macy's determination and ingenuity paid off at the age of
thirty-six with the launch of R.H. Macy and Co. He adopted a red star as
his symbol of success, dating back to his days as a sailor. First day
sales totaled $11.06 but by the end of the first full year, sales
grossed almost $90,000. By 1877, R.H. Macy & Co. had become a
full-fledged department store occupying the ground space of eleven
adjacent buildings.

Always the innovator, Macy's is known for
several firsts that revolutionized the retail industry. Macy's was the
first retailer to promote a woman, Margaret Getchell, to an executive
position, making business history. Macy's pioneered such revolutionary
business practices as the one-price system, in which the same item was
sold to every customer at one price, and quoting specific prices for
goods in newspaper advertising. Known for its creative merchandising,
Macy's was the first to introduce such products as the tea bag, the
Idaho baked potato and colored bath towels. Macy's was also the first
retailer to hold a New York City liquor license.

By November 1902, the store had outgrown
its modest storefront and moved uptown to its present Herald Square
location on Broadway and 34th Street, establishing an attraction for
shoppers from around the world. With the store's 7th Avenue expansion
complete in 1924, Macy's Herald Square became the "World's Largest
Store", with over one million square feet of retail space.

By 1918, R.H. Macy & Co. was generating $36
million in annual sales. Yet, the prosperity of the retailer was never
more apparent than when the company went public in 1922 and began to
open regional stores and take over competing stores. In 1923, the
Toledo-based department store LaSalle & Kock was acquired; the next
year, Davison-Paxton in Atlanta was acquired and in 1936, the
Newark-based Bamberger's was purchased.

To help celebrate their new American
heritage, Macy's immigrant employees organized the first Christmas
Parade in 1924. The procession featured floats, bands, animals from the
zoo and 10,000 onlookers, beginning a time-honored tradition now known
as the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade®.

In 1945, the company expanded west and
purchased O'Connor Moffatt and Company in San Francisco. Two years
later, O'Connor Moffatt stores, including the landmark Union Square
store which opened in 1866, were converted to Macy's after a survey
indicated that San Franciscans would welcome the name.

Macy's California broke new ground with the
first department store flower show in 1946. What began as a fragrance
promotion in the cosmetics department now annually welcomes the spring
season, treating visitors to a botanical, cultural and community
spectacle. It caught on in New York six years later. In 1971, Macy's
Union Square store's lower level, once cluttered with bargains, was
transformed into "The Cellar," changing the way customers shop for
housewares. Due to its success, the Herald Square store followed suit
five years later.

A & S Department Stores, purchased by FDS
in 1929, were converted to the Macy's nameplate in May 1995. Also in
1995, FDS acquired the Broadway Department Stores, bringing Broadway,
Emporium and Weinstocks to the Macy's family, as well as six former I.
Magnin stores; some forty-six stores were converted to Macy's. Following
the lead of A & S, Jordan Marsh Department Stores of Boston, already
owned by FDS, were converted to Macy's in March 1996. In January 2001,
Macy's absorbed seventeen Stern's Department Stores located in New York
and New Jersey. In June 2001, FDS purchased the Liberty House operations
in Hawaii and Guam, bringing the proud Macy's tradition and heritage to
the Pacific. As of November 2003, there are 248 Macy's stores in
twenty-one states, Puerto Rico and Guam.

Federated, with corporate offices in
Cincinnati and New York, is one of the nation's leading department store
retailers with annual sales of more than $15.4 billion. Federated
currently operates more than 460 department stores in thirty-four
states, Puerto Rico and Guam under the names of Macy's, Bloomingdale's,
Bon-Macy's, Burdines-Macy's, Goldsmith's-Macy's, Lazarus-Macy's, and
Rich's-Macy's. Federated also operates macys.com and Bloomingdale's By
Mail.